"Radio is by far the most popular and most trusted media in Sierra Leone, with 85% of people listening to radio as their main source of information," says Ambrose. "But it seems even access to radio is not a right because it depends on who owns and runs radio stations and their perceptions on using it from a rights based approach."
Search for Common Ground’s Sierra Leone Country Director, Ambrose James reflects on media justice in his country in a piece written for Sierra Express Media. SFCG utilizes a number of mediums to reach people in Sierra Leone, including radio and television.
As I understand media justice more I reflect on the fact that our governments either does not see or understand media access from a rights perspective or just deliberately try to impinge on the rights of its citizens for obvious reasons – they don’t want citizens to be knowledgeable and have access to information which might allow them to hold government more accountable. Even as that might be their fear, it has dawned on me to actually reflect on the millions of people who are cut off from the mainstream society because of this thinking and how opportunities are missed, how it impacts on their development aspirations and their living conditions continue to worsen because of the lack of basic access to information and tools. These are people who vote and place for the responsibility of running their country, region, district, chiefdom and village in the hands of the very people who do not see media as a right or deliberately just continue to deny them access. How can they vote properly based on issues? How can they make rational judgment and analysis? How can they have access to opportunities like every other citizen? How can growth take place when the people who are supposed to be supporting government’s development plans and agendas do not know what is happening beyond their localities? Lack of media justice has ripple effects; even as the leaders might think that media justice will make them less powerful and unable to act, it also undermines their development agendas. When their development agendas are not achieved they look bad in the eyes of the people.
Read the rest of the article here…
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L-R: An elections observer; A voter holds up her registration card before voting; Liberian voter queue in the rain to vote (photos: Lindsay Forslund)
By Lindsay Forslund
What I witnessed yesterday here in Liberia can only be recorded in history as nothing short of true dedication to the democratic process. The morning sky was covered with large grey rain clouds, but the mood in Monrovia was bright; people where enthusiastically queuing up outside of polling stations hours before they were scheduled to open at 8:00am in anticipation. I arrived at the Ushahidi office at 7:30am where the Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC) data collection staff had started to arrive. The ECC had trained 20 observers on a data collection program that was designed to take calls about any critical incidences witness by the 2000 ECC monitors in the field. read more…
SFCG has worked continuously in Burundi for peace, reconciliation and conflict resolution.
Owning land is for the majority of the population crucial as it is the main income generator in Burundi, one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. About 90 percent of the country’s10 million people live in rural areas and earn a living by keeping livestock or selling crops.
In 1992 refugees who had fled twenty years ago, after the government had responded to a rebellion with massive killings and expulsion, returned to participate in the election of a new government. Land conflicts between residents and returnees helped trigger the post-election crisis, which led to a decade long war. The war killed 200,000 people, destroyed the nation’s infrastructure, cut agricultural production by half, and produced a second wave of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).
The committee for the Mo Ibrahim Prize announcing the winner of this year: President Pedro Verona Pires of Cape Verde.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, one of this year’s Common Ground Award recipients, has announced its winner for the Ibrahim Prize. Established to recognize and celebrate excellence in African leadership, the Ibrahim Prize is an annual US$5 million award paid over 10 years and US$200,000 annually for life thereafter. The Foundation has not awarded the prize annually due to lack of acceptable candidates but after two years they have announced a winner: former President of Cape Verde, Pedro Verona Pires.
The prize ceremony to confer the Ibrahim Prize will take place in Tunis, Tunisia on 12 November 2011
Pedro Pires has helped guide Cape Verde from before its birth as a separate nation. Prominent in the struggle for independence, he was appointed Cape Verde’s first Prime Minister in 1975. He remained in the post for 16 years and helped pave the way for the country’s first democratic elections in 1991 when his African Party of Independence of Cape Verde lost office. Ten years later he was elected as President and served two terms.
As The Australian points out, during his ten years of Presidency Pires emphasized macro-economic management, good governance and the responsible use of donor support to improve infrastructure, build up the country’s tourism industry and prioritize social development.
The result is that Cape Verde is now seen as an African success story, economically, socially and politically. According to the IMF, real GDP grew annually between 2000 and 2009 by over six percent, well-above the average for both sub-Saharan African and small island economies.
Freedom Riders demanding Civil Rights in New York City
The Common Ground Awards are coming up (October 27) and if you’d like to come get your tickets now!
Leading up to the event we’ll be showcasing each of our exceptional 2011 awardees. This week the spotlight is on The Freedom Riders.
In May 1961 a handful black and white Americans Freedom riders set out on a journey to the South – deliberately violating the segregation laws and thus challenging society to acknowledge the injustice of the laws and to take action to change them. The Supreme Court had twice upheld desegregation of restaurants and waiting rooms of interstate travel facilities, but the laws were ignored in the South and interstate travel continued to be an exercise in humiliation and inequality for black Americans.
To demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the legislation the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized the first ‘freedom rides.’ Trained in, and committed to, nonviolent protest, 13 black and white volunteers rode together on buses headed to the deep South.
Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
~Maya Angelou 1928–
